A comparison of the subspecific divergence of two sympatric African monkeys, Papio hamadryas & Chlorocebus aethiops: morphology, environment, diet & phylogeny

The baboon and vervet monkey exhibit numerous similarities in geographic range, ecology and social structure, and both exhibit extensive subspecific variation corresponding to geotypic forms. This thesis compares these two subspecific radiations, using skull morphology to characterise the two taxa, and attempts to determine if the two have been shaped by similar selective forces.The baboon exhibits clinal variation corresponding to decreasing size from Central to East Africa, like the vervet. However West African baboons are small, unlike the vervet. Much of the shape variation in baboons is size-related. Controlling for this reveals a north-south pattern of shape change corresponding to phylogenetic history. There are significant differences between the chacma and olive baboon subspecies in the proportion of subterranean foods in the diet. No dietary differences were detected between vervet subspecies. Baboon dietary variation was found to covary significantly with skull variation. However, no biomechanical adaptation was detected, suggesting morphological constraint owing to the recent divergence between subspecies. Phylogeny correlates with morphology to reveal an axis between northern and southern taxa in baboons. In vervets C. a. sabaeus is the most morphologically divergent, which with other evidence, suggests a West African origin and radiation east and south, in contrast with a baboon origin in southern Africa. Path analyses of all the factors discussed revealed markedly different relationships between the two taxa, with baboons responding to the environment via diet rather than directly.The two subspecific radiations have different relationships with diet, environment and phylogeny. In spite of superficial similarities, the study taxa are sufficiently different that similar ecological and environmental selective forces have not produced convergent patterns of radiations. The baboon exhibits greater flexibility and larger size freeing it from limiting constraints faced by vervets. Additionally the two have distinct sites of origins and patterns of dispersals adding a stochastic element to the differences between radiations

Too Sophisticated for Your Own Good: Missouri, Sophisticated Parties and ... the Economic Loss Rule - Purcell Tire & (and) Rubber Co. v. Executive Beechcraft, Inc.

In Purcell Tire and Rubber Co. v. Executive Beechcraft, Inc., the Missouri Supreme Court held that the “express negligence” rule is inapplicable to liability limitations in contracts between sophisticated parties with claims or purely economic losses. Although the decision does not explicitly determine whether the case presented a contract or a tort claim, the result clearly follows from the treatment of the case as a pure contract action. Consequently, the decision parallels the typical result reached under the application of the more well-known “economic loss rule” and appropriately preserves the fundamental distinctions between contract and tort law in cases involving sophisticated parties

Shared Viewing From Phenomenological Perspectives: English Teachers and Lived Experience as Text

In this article, we share our different perspectives using the philosophical lens of phenomenology to shape a hermeneutic research methodology considering the experiences of English teachers using arts-based or aesthetic pedagogy. The consideration includes the use of poetry, film, and other texts, and we approach this exploration of method and pedagogy from alternative philosophical stances (AHMED, 2006; MERLEAU-PONTY, 1993 [1964]; VAN MANEN, 2018). What unites the two studies is a sense of the importance of teachers' experiences in meaning-making and interpretation as they work to convey instruction to their students through texts that speak to lived experience in a variety of ways.In diesem Beitrag nutzen wir unsere unterschiedlichen phänomenologischen Perspektiven, um eine hermeneutische Methodologie am Beispiel von Englischlehrer*innen zu veranschaulichen, die sich einer kunstbasierten oder ästhetischen Pädagogik verpflichtet fühlen. Hierzu gehört die Nutzung von Filmen, Dichtung oder anderen Texten, und wir haben uns in diese Exploration von Methode und Pädagogik aus unterschiedlichen philosophischen Blickwinkeln begeben (AHMED 2006; MERLEAU-PONTY 1993 [1964]; VAN MANEN 2018). Was unsere beiden Studien, aus denen wir berichten, verbunden hat, ist die Wertschätzung der Relevanz der Erfahrungen der Lehrer*innen, ihrer Bemühung um Sinnstiftung und Deutung bei der Vermittlung ihrer jeweiligen Instruktionen an die Lernenden mithilfe von Texten, in denen Alltagserfahrung in einer Vielzahl von Wegen angesprochen wurde

A public ideation of shape-changing applications

The shape-changing concept where objects reconfigure their physical geometry has the potential to transform our interactions with computing devices, displays and everyday artifacts. Their dynamic physicality capitalizes on our inherent tactile sense and facilitates object re-appropriation. Research both within and outside HCI continues to develop a diverse range of technological solutions and materials to enable shape-change. However, as an early-stage enabling technology, the community has yet to identify important applications and use-cases to fully exploit its value. To expose and document a range of applications for shape-change, we employed unstructured brainstorming within a public engagement study. A 74-participant brainstorming exercise with members of the public produced 336 individual ideas that were coded into 11 major themes: entertainment, augmented living, medical, tools & utensils, research, architecture, infrastructure, industry, wearables, and education & training. This work documents the methodology and resultant application ideas along with reflections on the approach for gathering application ideas to enable shape-changing interactive surfaces and objects

3D Printing In Zero-G ISS Technology Demonstration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a long term strategy to fabricate components and equipment ondemand for manned missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. To support this strategy, NASA and Made in Space, Inc. are developing the 3D Printing In ZeroG payload as a Technology Demonstration for the International Space Station (ISS). The 3D Printing In ZeroG experiment ('3D Print') will be the first machine to perform 3D printing in space. The greater the distance from Earth and the longer the mission duration, the more difficult resupply becomes; this requires a change from the current spares, maintenance, repair, and hardware design model that has been used on the International Space Station (ISS) up until now. Given the extension of the ISS Program, which will inevitably result in replacement parts being required, the ISS is an ideal platform to begin changing the current model for resupply and repair to one that is more suitable for all exploration missions. 3D Printing, more formally known as Additive Manufacturing, is the method of building parts/objects/tools layerbylayer. The 3D Print experiment will use extrusionbased additive manufacturing, which involves building an object out of plastic deposited by a wirefeed via an extruder head. Parts can be printed from data files loaded on the device at launch, as well as additional files uplinked to the device while onorbit. The plastic extrusion additive manufacturing process is a lowenergy, lowmass solution to many common needs on board the ISS. The 3D Print payload will serve as the ideal first step to proving that process in space. It is unreasonable to expect NASA to launch large blocks of material from which parts or tools can be traditionally machined, and even more unreasonable to fly up multiple drill bits that would be required to machine parts from aerospacegrade materials such as titanium 64 alloy and Inconel. The technology to produce parts on demand, in space, offers unique design options that are not possible through traditional manufacturing methods while offering cost-effective, highprecision, lowunit ondemand manufacturing. Thus, Additive Manufacturing capabilities are the foundation of an advanced manufacturing in space roadmap. The 3D Printing In ZeroG experiment will demonstrate the capability of utilizing Additive Manufacturing technology in space. This will serve as the enabling first step to realizing an additive manufacturing, printondemand "machine shop" for longduration missions and sustaining human exploration of other planets, where there is extremely limited ability and availability of Earthbased logistics support. Simply put, Additive Manufacturing in space is a critical enabling technology for NASA. It will provide the capability to produce hardware ondemand, directly lowering cost and decreasing risk by having the exact part or tool needed in the time it takes to print. This capability will also provide the muchneeded solution to the cost, volume, and upmass constraints that prohibit launching everything needed for longduration or longdistance missions from Earth, including spare parts and replacement systems. A successful mission for the 3D Printing In ZeroG payload is the first step to demonstrate the capability of printing on orbit. The data gathered and lessons learned from this demonstration will be applied to the next generation of additive manufacturing technology on orbit. It is expected that Additive Manufacturing technology will quickly become a critical part of any mission's infrastructure

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta limits the expansion of pathogenic Th cells during central nervous system autoimmunity.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs; PPAR-alpha, PPAR-delta, and PPAR-gamma) comprise a family of nuclear receptors that sense fatty acid levels and translate this information into altered gene transcription. Previously, it was reported that treatment of mice with a synthetic ligand activator of PPAR-delta, GW0742, ameliorates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), indicating a possible role for this nuclear receptor in the control of central nervous system (CNS) autoimmune inflammation. We show that mice deficient in PPAR-delta (PPAR-delta(-/-)) develop a severe inflammatory response during EAE characterized by a striking accumulation of IFN-gamma(+)IL-17A(-) and IFN-gamma(+)IL-17A(+) CD4(+) cells in the spinal cord. The preferential expansion of these T helper subsets in the CNS of PPAR-delta(-/-) mice occurred as a result of a constellation of immune system aberrations that included higher CD4(+) cell proliferation, cytokine production, and T-bet expression and enhanced expression of IL-12 family cytokines by myeloid cells. We also show that the effect of PPAR-delta in inhibiting the production of IFN-gamma and IL-12 family cytokines is ligand dependent and is observed in both mouse and human immune cells. Collectively, these findings suggest that PPAR-delta serves as an important molecular brake for the control of autoimmune inflammation

Enhanced emotion regulation capacity and its neural substrates in those exposed to moderate childhood adversity.

Individuals exposed to childhood adversities (CA) present with emotion regulation (ER) difficulties in later life, which have been identified as risk and maintenance factors for psychopathologies. However, it is unclear if CA negatively impacts on ER capacity per se or whether observed regulation difficulties are a function of the challenging circumstances in which ER is being deployed. In this longitudinal study, we aimed to clarify this association by investigating the behavioral and neural effects of exposure to common moderate CA (mCA) on a laboratory measure of ER capacity in late adolescence/young adulthood. Our population-derived samples of adolescents/young adults (N = 53) were administered a film-based ER-task during functional magnetic resonance imaging that allowed evaluation of ER across mCA-exposure. mCA-exposure was associated with enhanced ER capacity over both positive and negative affect. At the neural level, the better ER of negative material in those exposed to mCA was associated with reduced recruitment of ER-related brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex and temporal gyrus. In addition mCA-exposure was associated with a greater down-regulation of the amygdala during ER of negative material. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the effects of mCA on the emergence of resilience in adolescence are discussed

Directing self-assembly to grow adaptive physical structures

Additive manufacturing technologies offer exciting opportunities to rethink the process of designing and fabricating physical structures. This paper outlines initial work that seeks to extend existing AM capabilities, creating physically adaptive structures by exploiting processes of self-assembling materials. The paper details an investigation of self-assembling structures that can respond to different conditions by adapting their physical properties over time. The process uses electrolysis of seawater to demonstrate a proof-of concept of tuneable material structures, via crystal growth. Results demonstrate an aggregation-based multi-material system that is sensitive to changing environmental conditions. Material properties of grown structures have been analysed and illustrate that different materials can be created from an abundant base material (seawater) by manipulating environmental conditions (i.e. electrical current). It is found that turbulence is a useful property within these kinds of systems and that the physical properties of cathode scaffold structures have a significant impact in controlling material properties and resolution

Plasma sTNFR1 and IL8 for prognostic enrichment in sepsis trials: a prospective cohort study.

BackgroundEnrichment strategies improve therapeutic targeting and trial efficiency, but enrichment factors for sepsis trials are lacking. We determined whether concentrations of soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 (sTNFR1), interleukin-8 (IL8), and angiopoietin-2 (Ang2) could identify sepsis patients at higher mortality risk and serve as prognostic enrichment factors.MethodsIn a multicenter prospective cohort study of 400 critically ill septic patients, we derived and validated thresholds for each marker and expressed prognostic enrichment using risk differences (RD) of 30-day mortality as predictive values. We then used decision curve analysis to simulate the prognostic enrichment of each marker and compare different prognostic enrichment strategies.Measurements and main resultsAn admission sTNFR1 concentration > 8861 pg/ml identified patients with increased mortality in both the derivation (RD 21.6%) and validation (RD 17.8%) populations. Among immunocompetent patients, an IL8 concentration > 94 pg/ml identified patients with increased mortality in both the derivation (RD 17.7%) and validation (RD 27.0%) populations. An Ang2 level > 9761 pg/ml identified patients at 21.3% and 12.3% increased risk of mortality in the derivation and validation populations, respectively. Using sTNFR1 or IL8 to select high-risk patients improved clinical trial power and efficiency compared to selecting patients with septic shock. Ang2 did not outperform septic shock as an enrichment factor.ConclusionsThresholds for sTNFR1 and IL8 consistently identified sepsis patients with higher mortality risk and may have utility for prognostic enrichment in sepsis trials